Copper is a relatively well known inhibitor for gas conditioning fluids which employ the alkanolamines in their aqueous solution to absorb various gases from natural and synthetic hydrocarbon gas streams. To be an effective corrosion inhibitor copper must be in the form of a plus 2 valence state, for in this state copper ion is soluble in aqueous alkanolamine solutions. A problem which has been recognized to exist for many years is that the copper undergoes reduction to copper with a valence state of plus 1 or even copper zero at which latter point the copper plates out on the metal surface of the interior of the operating elements of a plant. Various methods have been suggested for converting the copper from copper zero or copper one to copper two and include the use of potassium permanganate. However, the use of such, while converting the copper from copper zero to copper one to copper two produces a precipitate of manganese oxide and the chemicals undergo side reactions with for example MEA, the CO.sub.2 being absorbed or other compounds present in the process. Another proposed means for maintaining copper in solution in the plus 2 state of oxidation is to periodically remove the solution and reoxidize the copper metal or copper one that has not plated out and is still soluble in the solution to copper two and then filter the solution to remove the precipitates and the degradation products resulting from the side reactions. Another technique employed on occasion is the direct addition of oxygen to the process in the reductive section of the plant, but such an addition of oxygen accelerates the oxidation and degradation of the MEA and contaminates the CO.sub.2 because excess oxygen, that is oxygen not reacted in the oxidation of the copper, will pass through the process and exit with the CO.sub.2 product.
It would, therefore, be advantageous to provide a process which does not increase the chemical cost, the operating cost, nor contaminate the product.